League: Final order still to be decided

Jason Nightingale of St George Illawarra Dragons in action during the World Club Series. Photo / Getty Images

The top eight teams have been confirmed but not their finishing order ahead of today's final three games of the regular season.

The Dragons secured eighth with their 32-30 win over the Wests Tigers last night. They would have had to lose by a big margin to miss out and looked in complete control when leading 30-8 with 15 minutes remaining but eventually won in golden point.

They finished the regular season with 12 wins and 12 defeats and last night's victory saw them bounce back from their disappointing 28-26 defeat to the Titans the previous weekend.

The top three spots have been decided - the Roosters won the minor premiership, with the Broncos and Cowboys second and third respectively - along with seventh (Rabbitohs) and eighth (Dragons) but fourth, fifth and sixth spots are still up for grabs in today's games.

The Sharks can leapfrog the Storm with a win over the Sea Eagles today but defeat against a Manly side farewelling Geoff Toovey as coach could see them slip to sixth.

The Bulldogs need to beat the Warriors today and hope the Sharks are beaten to finish fifth. If they lose or the Sharks win, they will be sixth.

All eight finalists will play in the first week of the playoffs, with the top-ranked winners earning a week off the following week and the bottom-ranked losers being eliminated. The grand final will be in Sydney on Sunday, October 4.

It's likely the premiership winners will come from the top four, given no team has won the NRL when qualifying fifth or lower.

It will take something special for the Dragons to go deep into the playoffs, and they showed their frailties against the Tigers last night.

They appeared to be cruising but conceded four tries, including two in the last four minutes, to allow the game to go into golden point.

Benji Marshall had a great chance to win it for the Dragons but sliced his drop kick from in front of the sticks.

But team-mate Josh Dugan landed a penalty after Robbie Farah, who was probably playing his last first-grade game for the club after being told he can look for another club, was pinged for offside.